2 2 o Joiir7ial of Travel and Natural History 



hunters who found it. The only difficulty is to account for its breaking off in 

 so soft a part as the belly of an elephant ; perhaps it might have been previously 

 fractured." 



We are more disposed to think (notwithstanding its great size) 

 that the mass of ivory had been swallowed. It could never have 

 penetrated the true stomach, and not only the animal survive, but 

 the wound close up, leaving no trace; and it is only a little 

 less difficult to suppose that it could have done so in the abdomen 

 proper ; still, that is possible ; we imagine the other to be im- 

 possible. 



But by far the most interesting novelty regarding the elephant 

 recorded by Chapman, is the occurrence of an individual with nine 

 tusks. This was also mentioned by Baines in his " Explorations 

 in South Africa ; " but his account seems not to have excited the 

 attention it deserves. The reader will presently see that it is an 

 abnormalty of the most intense interest. Mr Chapman's account 

 of it is as follows : 



" The elephant killed by Molefi, otherwise called Rapiet, six years ago on the 

 Teouge, and which attracted notice from the singularity of its having no less 

 than nine perfect tusks, was, he told me, a male. The tusks were ranged five 

 on one side and four on the other. I purchased some of the tusks at the time, 

 but they had been mixed up with many others, and, when I heard of the 

 peculiarity, they could not be identified. I got Molefi to describe the affair 

 over again, and Baines made a sketch from his description." — (vol. ii., p. 98.) 



The above does not tell much, but Mr Baines has had the kind- 

 ness to look out his sketches of the elephant for us, and most 

 liberally allowed us to use them ; and on examining them we find 

 them so full of interest that we shall devote a separate paper to 

 their consideration (see page 265), to which we beg to refer those 

 readers who may be interested in the subject. 



In the same way we might go over the lion, leopard, buffalo, 

 rhinoceroses, giraffes, antelopes, and the other principal wild ani- 

 mals inhabiting the interior of South Africa, and give similar notanda 

 of their habits and peculiarities ; the reader will find the book a 

 perfect storehouse of such information, but we must be sparing. 



Of the lion we may note that although plentiful and daring in 

 some places, and often heard, it must be rapidly diminishing in 

 numbers. Chapman mentions that, notwithstanding all his ad- 

 vantages, he had only killed seven during all the years of his 

 wanderings — 



